Fête de la Musique
Next: June 21, 2027
Play something, anywhere.
The story
Where it comes from
The Fête de la Musique began in France on 21 June 1982. A national survey had just found that five million French people played a musical instrument, so the Ministry of Culture under Jack Lang, with its director of music Maurice Fleuret, decided to bring them out into the streets. Part of the idea came from the musician Joël Cohen, who in 1976 had imagined music 'saturnalia' on the two solstices. Held on the longest day of the northern year, it spread across Europe after 1985, the European Year of Music, and is now celebrated in some 120 countries.
How it's celebrated
From the evening into the small hours, amateurs and professionals play for free on street corners, in squares, bars, gardens and concert halls, and every genre is welcome, from classical to reggae. In Paris the metro runs all night so that people can get home. In Britain the day goes by the name Make Music Day. Anyone can join in: sing on a balcony, play with a friend on the pavement, or simply stop and listen.
Did you know
- In 1997 a charter for a European Fête de la Musique was drawn up in Budapest to guide cities taking part.
- Together with the European Heritage Days, it is now one of France's two best-attended cultural events of the year.
- The Alliance Française de Singapour brought the Fête de la Musique to Singapore in the late 1980s.
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